Megamoo's 2012/2013 Glog

Ferrero · Dec 24, 2012

megamoo said:
He was my old dog from a few years ago. He was a really cool laid back dog too, not as mindless and insane as pugs can be. I miss the way they grunt and snore

I've got an overgrown Pug you should here him grunt and snore!!! The actual breeds a Bullmastiff

megamoo · Dec 24, 2012

Stefan_W said:
Pugs are definitely big on making funny noises. They could never survive in the wild because they wouldn't be able to sneak up on anything.

Yeah I know! all the snorts and grunts especially when they get excited :rofl:

On a serious note they can't survive on their own. I bred Pugs for a short time and learnt the sad truth that they are victims of selective breeding to make them look a certain way, with the side effect of making them nearly unable to reproduce on their own. Almost every pure bred pug female needs a caesarian when giving birth because the pups get stuck coming out. It's the same sort of thing with purebred Labradors and hip displasia. They could get rid of these conditions by crossing breeds but then they wouldn't be "pure bred". Breeders don't talk about it much, its bad for business. If humans disappeared a lot of breeds would disappear... of course they don't care who they breed with

Left to their own devices they'd all be mutts.

Love to get another one but it's too hot here for Pugs, they really don't like the heat.

DocNrock · Dec 25, 2012

Gotta say, we had a pug when I was growing up. What awesome dogs. Very smart, and real characters.

Stefan_W · Dec 25, 2012

Hey Moo, Merry Christmas to you and your family!

megamoo · Dec 26, 2012

DocNrock said:
Gotta say, we had a pug when I was growing up. What awesome dogs. Very smart, and real characters.

They can be smart in a really mischievous way!

Stefan_W said:
Hey Moo, Merry Christmas to you and your family!

Thanks Stefan. To you too

My plants were looking really bushy and I don't know if anyone does this, but the other day I went and pruned off all the lower leaves that were touching the soil. Apparently it gives plants better air circulation and that reduces fungal diseases that thrive in high humidity. It also removes paths for pests and diseases to get onto the plant from contact with the soil.

Anyway they look better now. Photos to follow tomorrow.

Also.... I extremed myself up for an xmas present.

megamoo · Dec 27, 2012

Took some pictures.

After pruning off all the lowest leaves yesterday I spread some some sugar cane mulch over the soil today because it has been getting really hot here.

Yellow 7 Pot has finally set a pod. It comes with its own spider guardian

The whole fence garden is looking great. Tons of flowers and lots of pods, all of them green except the two annuums have some ripe pods.

This end section has mature plants in both front and back rows, but the rest of the wall garden has younger plants in the back row. You can see the difference as the rear ones are stretching to get more light.

You can also see the effect of the shade cloth in this picture. The plants on the right under the shade cloth are much younger than the ones just out from under the shade cloth. It makes them stretch and grow bushier, especially here in Perth where the sun is strong and harsh.

Last ones in the ground are doing good and bad depending on where they are. The ones behind the shed are doing ok.

But over in the open part these ones have had a rough transplant. I think it has to do with the quality of the soil and the lack of shade.

Just over the other side of a row of tomatoes these ones look much better. They get much more shade from other plants and the soil had been repeatedly drenched by a bore outlet pipe, so maybe that made a difference?

These youngest transplants were started too late. Now they have to battle against the hottest part of summer to grow big, whereas the other ones are making pods and the heat is stressing the plants and making the pods hotter.

For next season I will definitely start earlier and try to reset my hydro system to be able to start more seeds at once. They way I had it set up allowed me to grow 136 seed cells at a time. Sounds like a lot but after no shows and all the thinning out along the way it was reduced down to about roughly 36 mature plants.

The end result of that means I now have about 70 plants old enough to carry pods through the summer heat with no trouble, another 33 still growing but doing alright, and another 30 young ones struggling to withstand the heat. Those are just the chinenses. The rest are younger still and need watching.

I have the available space, (with a larger hydro flood tray) to increase it to 200 seed cells at a time. This will equal out to 50 mature plants at a time, instead of 36. I don't want at this stage to increase my growing list because its a lot of work for me right now, but this plan will get it done quicker and earlier, so at this time next year I'll have ripe pods aplenty.

megamoo · Dec 27, 2012

I read that more sun will hasten ripening of pods. Recently there's been plenty of sun and got the first bit of chinense colour today. :dance:

Magnum Habanero. It was the first chinense pod to set, an so if everything follows in turn there's about to be a whole lotta orange!

One Jalapeno has turned red. It feels a bit soon so this one might have escaped the first green pod harvest.

stickman · Dec 27, 2012

Hi Moo
You're where I hope to be in July... Nice looking pods and pics. Keep up the good work!

RocketMan · Dec 27, 2012

megamoo said:
Yeah I know! all the snorts and grunts especially when they get excited

Love to get another one but it's too hot here for Pugs, they really don't like the heat.

We have a Puggle, Pug crossed with Beagle but looks like a Pug, well at least Coda does. He doesn't really snort and grunt but when he gets to snoring he can wake the room. And afraid of nothing! When he was still just a wee bit of a thing he'd attack my sons Hound when ever he came over for a visit and Woody weights in at about 80 Lbs or more. Great dog!

Trippa · Dec 27, 2012

Geez moo your plants are going gang busters!!! Those older ones in the raised beds seem to have almost doubled in size since your last update!! THis makes me realise how much i want to grow in ground instead of containers .. nice work!!

Lavatung · Dec 27, 2012

Nice pods. That jalapeño looks awesome! The shaded plants are looking good. I might have to rig up some shade.

Stefan_W · Dec 28, 2012

I love the look of the plants along the fence, and I'm impressed with how big a grow you have in what looks like moderately limited space. They should be podding up in no time.

megamoo · Dec 28, 2012

stickman said:
Hi Moo
You're where I hope to be in July... Nice looking pods and pics. Keep up the good work!

Thanks stickman

I hope to be at this stage next November too. The best of the `good work` I'm doing at the moment is resisting the urge to fertilise them and just give them water. It's paying off!

RocketMan said:
We have a Puggle, Pug crossed with Beagle but looks like a Pug, well at least Coda does. He doesn't really snort and grunt but when he gets to snoring he can wake the room. And afraid of nothing! When he was still just a wee bit of a thing he'd attack my sons Hound when ever he came over for a visit and Woody weights in at about 80 Lbs or more. Great dog!

Coincidence! Beagles are the other breed of dog I've bred. The most important thing I told people who wanted to get one is they need to have an active lifestyle. Beagles are little dynamos with energy to burn. Have to be walked every day or they go nuts. A puggle sounds like a cool cross.

Trippa said:
Geez moo your plants are going gang busters!!! Those older ones in the raised beds seem to have almost doubled in size since your last update!! THis makes me realise how much i want to grow in ground instead of containers .. nice work!!

Thanks Trippa. I didn't really think there would be a big difference growing in the ground vs containers but its working!

Lavatung said:
Nice pods. That jalapeño looks awesome! The shaded plants are looking good. I might have to rig up some shade.

I'm trying to figure out how long I should leave it to ripen before eating it. I want to get a fully ripened flavour and then eat a green one to taste the difference.
The shading is working right now. Come Autumn I'll take it down so they get more sun.

Stefan_W said:
I love the look of the plants along the fence, and I'm impressed with how big a grow you have in what looks like moderately limited space. They should be podding up in no time.

I spend too much time just looking at them

It looks small but if I went to the trouble of removing some of the large tree/plants and also ripped up the grass that is invading the large top bed I'd have a much larger area. I've still got a rose garden I can convert and use if needed but I really don't have the time and will right now.

I think I will confine my chilli garden to its current location for this season. The plan was to have chilies in the rose garden and large pots lining walkways all around the house but in the end I ran out of time to get all the seeds started and to get everything organised. Next year may be bigger. This is actually my most productive season ever and I've only gotten green pods so far!

Sownseeds · Dec 28, 2012

Hi Moo your plants look so good this season , They seem to like your soil mix.

gasificada · Dec 30, 2012

Going the freak off, moo! :onfire:

Yeah, ground growing is the schnitzel! There is a HUGE difference between ground and pots.

Trips, do yourself the favour and get some ground, man!

stickman · Dec 30, 2012

gasificada said:
Yeah, ground growing is the schnitzel! There is a HUGE difference between ground and pots.

+1 on that... For me at least, growing in the ground is easier. I have very sandy soil, and if I add enough humus and nutes the roots just go nuts. I grew Eggplant last year that got over a meter tall and when I pulled them up at the end of the season found that they had sent out lateral roots about 4 meters. They're heavier feeders than the chiles. Those sent roots out about half a meter.

megamoo · Dec 30, 2012

just typed up a big post with photos and everything...... and then closed the window :banghead:

Sownseeds said:
Hi Moo your plants look so good this season , They seem to like your soil mix.

They've been going nuts since I stopped feeding them liquid ferts and left them to the food already in the soil.

gasificada said:
Going the freak off, moo!

Yeah, ground growing is the schnitzel! There is a HUGE difference between ground and pots.

Trips, do yourself the favour and get some ground, man!

My experience in pots had been much better than in soil up until now. These are the biggest and healthiest chillies I've ever grown!

stickman said:
+1 on that... For me at least, growing in the ground is easier. I have very sandy soil, and if I add enough humus and nutes the roots just go nuts. I grew Eggplant last year that got over a meter tall and when I pulled them up at the end of the season found that they had sent out lateral roots about 4 meters. They're heavier feeders than the chiles. Those sent roots out about half a meter.

My oldest bhut joloka plant put on a burst of growth when it was far away from the water source. It must have sent out some long roots.

The season isn't all shits and giggles. Badtime photos to follow.....

This tomato was sitting on the soil so I'm not surprised something burrowed in.

and just when I thought I would start posting ripe pod pictures....!
Saw a bit of red in the bhut jolokia bush, so I peered in and came face to face with the horror!

Something has been chewing on the gnarly bumps all over the pod and even burrowed into it. Cut it up looking for the worm, found nothing but brown crap. :evil:

There are a whole lot of other green pods on the plant but I couldn't see any other marks. I get the feeling they'll attack again though. Luckily this plant is far out on its own and removed from the others.
The smell when cutting it up was something!

This fugly jalapeno pod was jutting out from the plant and exposed to a whole lot of sun.... so I'm guessing this is sun scald damage??? It's the only one as far as I could see.

Lots of Jalapeno pods have this sort of damage. Something is stripping off the outer later of the stem but not burrowing into the pods.

Can't see what's causing it, maybe some sort of slug or caterpillar ?? Same thing that massacred the bhut pod.

That's all the bad stuff. Flowers are dropping all the time but plenty of pods are forming despite the heat wave. I'm sure it would be worse if not for shade.

Getting lots of fearsome looking Jonah pods.

Dorset Naga

Habanero Peach

Stefan_W · Dec 30, 2012

I had similar looking damage on my bhuts this past summer, except it was all around the area where the stems attach to the plants so it was not quite as bad. I figured something was trying to eat it, and then figured out that this was a bad idea.

The jalapeno damage could be sun scalding if that is the only one that has it. I had to deal with blossom end rot on my jalapenos this past year, which hit about 1/3 of the jalapenos on the vine. I tried increasing the calcium but that did not work. I was told it is usually from overwatering, but I did not water the jalapenos more than any other plant and they were the only ones hit. I just figured I'm not cut out for growing jalapenos and called it a day.

Your Jonahs look AWESOME!

megamoo · Dec 30, 2012

Got a few more photos

Stefan_W said:
I had similar looking damage on my bhuts this past summer, except it was all around the area where the stems attach to the plants so it was not quite as bad. I figured something was trying to eat it, and then figured out that this was a bad idea.

The jalapeno damage could be sun scalding if that is the only one that has it. I had to deal with blossom end rot on my jalapenos this past year, which hit about 1/3 of the jalapenos on the vine. I tried increasing the calcium but that did not work. I was told it is usually from overwatering, but I did not water the jalapenos more than any other plant and they were the only ones hit. I just figured I'm not cut out for growing jalapenos and called it a day.

Your Jonahs look AWESOME!

I don't want the other pods to go the same way so if anyone has any idea what is eating my bhut and what to do to it ??
I figure the jalapeno is sun damage because it was hanging right out in the sun.
They do look awesome don't they!

A few more photos...
I thought I'd bag some unopened flowers for isolation. It's even more fiddly than it looks

I got two types of bags. Some cheap and shiny wedding gift type bags. The ones I got have large holes which would stop insects but not wind borne pollen.

I also got these `make your own tea bag` ones. They are also really cheap and tend to rip apart if you are too strong on the drawstrings but they have a much finer weave.

You would think they'll hold up in the water too, yet to see.

When I've got time in the next few days I'm going to stretch some shade cloth over this area behind the shed because everything looks nice and green but stunted.

Limo Blanco. It's half the size of others that started the same. All because of shadecloth coverage.

Once summer is over I'm sure they will do better to have full sun.

Ripening Magnum Habanero is nearly done.

How long do people leave them on the plant after they have finished changing to their final colour?

Trippa · Dec 30, 2012

gasificada said:
Going the freak off, moo!

Yeah, ground growing is the schnitzel! There is a HUGE difference between ground and pots.

Trips, do yourself the favour and get some ground, man!

Yeah looking into a community plot at the moment. Maybe a little late in the season but meh. I will grow something until September next year then boom .... Chilli's galore

megamoo said:
Got a few more photos

I don't want the other pods to go the same way so if anyone has any idea what is eating my bhut and what to do to it ??
I figure the jalapeno is sun damage because it was hanging right out in the sun.
They do look awesome don't they!

A few more photos...
I thought I'd bag some unopened flowers for isolation. It's even more fiddly than it looks
I got two types of bags. Some cheap and shiny wedding gift type bags. The ones I got have large holes which would stop insects but not wind borne pollen.

I also got these `make your own tea bag` ones. They are also really cheap and tend to rip apart if you are too strong on the drawstrings but they have a much finer weave.

You would think they'll hold up in the water too, yet to see.

When I've got time in the next few days I'm going to stretch some shade cloth over this area behind the shed because everything looks nice and green but stunted.

Limo Blanco. It's half the size of others that started the same. All because of shadecloth coverage.

Once summer is over I'm sure they will do better to have full sun.

Ripening Magnum Habanero is nearly done.

How long do people leave them on the plant after they have finished changing to their final colour?

Looking good mega as per normal ... not those pods though ... not sure what is eating them?? Maybe even birds?? Just poking holes in them ( I had crows do that last season)
As for the pods ripening it depends if you are planning on keeping the seeds for trading etc?? If you are I like to leave the pods on the plant until they are fully ripe. If not I usually pick them just before they fully colour up (tiny bit of green/orange) to ensure Max heat and keeping/freezing quality